On March 12th, 2009, a divided Bridgwater Selectmen chose not to block Tedeschi's from acquiring a keno monitor over concerns of at least a single board member that the move would have a bad effect on the town's restaurants and pubs. Selectman Stan Kravitz said Tedeschi is taking that money away from the local economy and giving it to the national economy. But Selectman Christopher Flynn stated that they should not block Tedeschi's decision. Flynn said that if they decided not to support this decision, they are only showing favoritism.
The Massachusetts state lottery sent a notice to the selectmen of its decision to permit Tedeschi's decision to upgrade from Keno to Go to a full-fledged keno game. According to the Massachusetts Lottery, Keno to Go allows gamers to buy keno digits in the store but they have no in-store option to tell if they have won or not. They can check the winning digits at the lottery's online site. With regular keno games, live online monitors allow players to play along on the game, almost like an electronic variation of bingo.
Aside from that, the Massachusetts Lottery also informed the town of their intent to give Tedeschi's a keno monitor and gives the town twenty one days to submit any criticisms and objections in writing. The Selectmen voted 3 to 2 not to make any objections, with Selectmen Chairman Herb Lemon and Selectmen Christopher Flynn and Dennis Gallagher in the majority and Stan Kravitz and Mike Demos in the minority.
Selectmen Stan Kravitz said that the Massachusetts Lottery proposed the Keno to Go game in Bridgewater months ago and the Selectmen dismissed the proposal. Kravitz said that the Selectmen decided not to participate on the decision of the Massachusetts Lottery because of the feedbacks of pubs and bars that they might lose patrons if convenience stores offer Keno to Go. He said that the problem would be even worse if a full keno game were available at convenience stores.
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John Sullivan
